It's that time of the year again -- the time for the media to embark on its annual end-of-year orgy of "Year in Review" stories.

As every editor worth his or her salt knows, the "Year in Review" issue is really a way of re-packaging old news so you can spend the holiday season not working but doing what you really love to do at Christmastime: spending time and getting heartily fed up with the family, running up credit-card debt, watching college football on TV, and eating and drinking to excess. 2006 seems a particularly fertile year for pre-New-Year's backward glances because, as one online review put it, the world this past year was "Nuckin' Futs."

So, you can spend time over the next couple of weeks reviewing The Year that Was in comical videos, fake news stories, or absurd gifts for sports fans. If you're literary minded you can mull over the Top 10 Books of 2006, while cinephiles can debate the Top 10 Movies of 2006, as chosen by none other than Steven King. Then there's the best pop music of the year, which reminds us once again to be grateful at the collapse of the record industry.

Tech publications, of course, are not immune to this kind of revisionist history. That includes the elves at Unstrung, who enjoy a meaningless bowl game and a strong cup of eggnog as much as the next guy or gal. So, starting at the end of this week, we will roll out our own 2006 Year in Review. Here's a sneak preview:

The Unstrung Year in Review package will be posted starting this Friday, Dec. 22, and throughout the week of the 25th. The weekly newsletter will not be going out next Tuesday. We wish all of our readers a safe and joyous holiday and a prosperous, innovative New Year.

— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung